Samsung Agrees to Purchase Sony's LCD Business for $940 Million

The joint LCD venture between Sony and Samsung is undergoing some changes with respect to ownership and who's responsible for what. Under terms of a new agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony's shares of S-LCD Corporation, the companies' joint manufacturing venture. Samsung will pay Sony 1.08 trillion South Korean won, or around $940 million, for the share transfer, and the two companies will continue their cooperative engineering efforts focused on LCD panel technology, Sony announced.

Sony's angle in this is to monetize its shares in S-LCD and to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility. Samsung, on the other hand, gains complete control of operations and anticipates heightened flexibility, speed, and efficiency in both panel production and business operations.